Substitute's late strike lifts Real Madrid past Elche after two-goal collapse

Real Madrid needed a stoppage-time goal from a fringe substitute to escape the Estadio Martínez Valero with all three points on Tuesday, squandering a two-goal lead before Carlos Espí struck in the fifth minute of added time to complete a 3-2 win over Elche. The result, confirmed on the official La Liga match calendar, moved Madrid level on points with Barcelona at the top of the standings heading into a midweek fixture.

Kylian Mbappé scored Madrid's second goal of the night, taking his tally to seven league goals in six matches and keeping him at the top of La Liga's scoring charts, according to the match report and statistics compiled after the final whistle.

How the goals fell

José Mourinho's side looked in control early, going 2-0 up inside 33 minutes in the matchday-6 fixture. The opener arrived in the 25th minute when a long-range free kick from Arda Güler swerved past the wall and deflected in off Elche goalkeeper Matías Dituro for an own goal. Eight minutes later, Mbappé doubled the advantage with a close-range finish after a swift break down the left, converting a low cross with a simple tap-in from inside the six-yard box. He also had a second-half effort ruled out for offside before the game turned. Elche responded with two goals in twelve minutes: Abiel Osorio pulled one back in the 71st minute, and Fer Niño leveled the score in the 83rd, setting up a nervous finish. The winner came together quickly: substitute Jude Bellingham, who had replaced Güler, drove forward and found Mbappé, who squared the ball for fellow substitute Espí to finish from close range in the fifth minute of added time.

Mbappé's scoring streak

Mbappé's goal extended a run that has made him La Liga's most consistent finisher since joining the club. He won the league's Pichichi trophy as its top scorer in each of his first two seasons in Spain, most recently in 2025-26 with 25 goals, according to a season scoring-charts roundup. Seven goals in six matches to open 2026-27 keeps him on a similar pace. He has also carried that form into Europe: Mbappé scored the opening goal in Madrid's 2-1 win over Inter Milan in their Champions League opener at the Bernabéu on September 8, a result detailed in a separate Champions League match report. Madrid's next league-phase fixtures in that competition follow in October and November: away at Roma on October 14, at home to Leipzig on October 21, and away at AEK Athens the following matchday.

Standings and history

The win was Madrid's fifth in six league matches this season. Their only defeat came at Real Betis two rounds earlier, a 1-0 loss in which Mbappé missed a stoppage-time penalty and Troy Parrott scored the winner — Mourinho's first defeat since returning for a second spell as Real Madrid manager this season. Elche, by contrast, remained without a league win, having taken just two points from their first five matches, including a 5-0 defeat at Barcelona, and sat in the relegation zone before kickoff. Barcelona, meanwhile, had gone into the round unbeaten at the summit, meaning Madrid's comeback was needed simply to keep pace at the top rather than to gain ground. The result also extended a heavily one-sided rivalry: Real Madrid have won 37 of 56 meetings between the two clubs across all competitions, with 13 draws and six Elche wins, and Elche have not beaten Madrid since a 3-1 win in March 1978, according to a dedicated head-to-head record.

Madrid's own preview ahead of kickoff had flagged the trip to Elche as a potential banana skin, describing the visit as a side "aiming for victory" against opponents fighting for their first points of the campaign, in a preview published by the club.

Who is affected

The result keeps Mourinho's team level with Barcelona at the summit and unbeaten in La Liga away from that single slip at Betis, while also extending Mbappé's lead in the scoring race — a subplot that will keep shaping the Ballon d'Or and Pichichi conversations as the season develops. For Elche, the loss deepens an already difficult start under new head coach Martín Anselmi and raises the pressure heading into their next away trip, with relegation-zone form now the club's central concern only six matchdays into the campaign. Espí, a 21-year-old forward Madrid signed from Levante this summer for a reported €25 million release clause after he was named his former division's best under-23 player, had made only a handful of senior appearances before Tuesday. His stoppage-time winner suddenly makes him a talking point in a squad stacked with established internationals, in a match Madrid nearly threw away, and Bellingham's role in the buildup underlined his own growing influence off the bench.

"We went from having it easy to losing control. But in the difficulty of the moment, facing the pressure of losing points, the team reacted and won the match, which in the end is the most important thing," Mourinho said after the game, in comments carried by the Associated Press wire report.

What happens next

Madrid host newly promoted Racing Santander on Wednesday with a chance to move outright top of the table. The fixture carries its own footnote: the last time Racing played in La Liga, in the 2011-12 season, Mourinho was also in charge of Real Madrid, during his first spell at the club between 2010 and 2013. Elche's search for a first league win continues away at Espanyol on Friday, a fixture that appears on the league's fixture list for the club. For Mbappé, Tuesday's goal extends a hot start to the campaign that has him well clear at the top of the scoring table, while for Espí, the late winner offers a rare high-profile moment in a squad stacked with established internationals.